"Electrification" is one of the most frequent words in the automotive industry today. All auto companies know that if they do not transform electrification, they will face being eliminated by the times. Even Toyota's head Akio Toyoda, who has repeatedly shelled and ridiculed "electric vehicles being over-hyped", has put down "resistance" and fully embraced electric vehicles.
On April 28, the first model of Toyota's bZ pure electric exclusive series, the bZ4X, officially opened for pre-sale, with a pre-price of 220,000-300,000 yuan, and the new car will be sold in the two sales systems of FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota.
The bZ4X is Toyota's first shot in the battle for electrification.
Toyota's electrified counter-offensive
In fact, if you trace Toyota's "history of playing electricity", Tesla can only be regarded as a younger brother in front of Toyota.
In 1997, Toyota introduced the prius prius, the world's first mass-produced hybrid model. With Prius as the starting point, Toyota hybrid technology has developed in four generations after 25 years, and has the advantages of very perfect electrification technology and three-electric system.
Some people say that Toyota only has precipitation in mixed electric models, but it is still "small white" on pure electric vehicles. In fact, as early as 1996, Toyota released the first generation of RAV4 EV, the car's battery capacity is 27kWh, EPA rated endurance of about 95 miles (about 153 kilometers), the top speed of about 126 kilometers / hour, from no power to full charge takes about 5 hours.
It can be said that Toyota is one of the first companies to study pure electric vehicles.
However, in contrast, today's local car companies are cutting through thorns and thorns in the field of electric vehicles and making great progress. As a traditional hegemon, Toyota is considered to be lagging behind in the electric vehicle market. Toyota has also launched pure electric models in China, but whether it is Toyota C-HR EV, or Lexus UXe, etc., there is really no sense of existence in the hearts of domestic consumers. Only hanging on the GAC LOGO, the Toyota iA5 with GAC Aegean technology also gained some sales.
So the question is, why did Toyota, which got up early in the morning, end up catching up with a "late set"? There are two main reasons for this:
Reason one: abandon the pure electric vehicle route, focusing on the development of oil-electric hybrid and hydrogen energy.
In Toyota's heart, hydrogen energy is the "white moonlight" of the future development of the car, and it is the real ultimate energy. Because hydrogen energy discharges only water, it really achieves 0 emissions and 0 pollution. Unlike the current pure electric vehicles, many places still rely on coal power and nuclear power for energy storage, which is not environmental protection in the true sense. Therefore, after abandoning pure electricity, Toyota embarked on the path of common development of hybrid and hydrogen fuel cells.
Toyota's idea is very good, through the hybrid model to achieve the transition from gasoline vehicles to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the middle will directly skip the development of pure electric vehicles. In the meantime, Toyota can still lead the market by virtue of its technological advantages.
However, the ideal is very full, and the reality is very bone. Toyota underestimated the technical difficulty of hydrogen fuel cells and the popularity of hydrogen energy. Including the difficulty of hydrogen energy storage, the high cost of hydrogen refueling stations, etc., all greatly limit the development of hydrogen energy vehicles.
In this way, in the face of the world is exalting the electrification transformation, Toyota, which lost on hydrogen energy vehicles, had to pick up the pure electric route again. However, it is this wrong route judgment that also makes Toyota miss the excellent opportunity and time for the development of pure electric vehicles.
Reason two: tail is not easy to turn around, Toyota is difficult to give up on the internal combustion engine.
At present, the world's fuel vehicles are basically enlarged by Toyota and Volkswagen, and it is difficult for Chinese and American car companies to compete with Japanese Germans in the fuel vehicle market. Moreover, thanks to excellent cost control, Toyota Motor's gross profit margin is also incomparable to other traditional car companies such as Volkswagen. Because of this, Toyota naturally does not want to give up the huge cake in its hands and fight with the Chinese and American countries that are already leading the track. This is also an important reason why Toyota does not hesitate to disclose patents and insists on opening up the hydrogen energy arena.
The fall of Nokia tells us: "When the times eliminate you, it has nothing to do with you." "Under the transformation of electrification, Toyota knows that if it does not shoot again, it will be dangerous. So, we can see such a classic scene.
At the end of 2021, Akio Toyoda, who was still shelling pure electric vehicles, not only announced his entry into the field of electric vehicles, but also announced the strategic planning and product layout for the next 10 years. According to Toyota's plan, it will introduce a total of 30 pure electric vehicle models in various fields including passenger cars and commercial vehicles worldwide by 2030, and toyota plans to achieve annual sales of pure electric vehicles worldwide by 2030.
What is more exaggerated is that In 2030, Lexus, a luxury brand under Toyota, will achieve a comprehensive lineup of pure electric versions for all models, achieve 100% pure electric vehicle sales in China, North America and Europe, and reach the goal of global sales of 1 million units. By 2035, Lexus will become a 100% pure electric brand.
To achieve this goal, Toyota said it will invest a total of 8 trillion yen (about 445.7 billion yuan) by 2030 for technology research and development and equipment investment, half of which will be used to develop all-electric models. It can be said that in order to counterattack the pure electric vehicle market and make up for the past 25 years of disappearing in the pure electric vehicle market, Toyota has also fought.
Hindsight Toyota has opened the transformation of electrification, as Toyota's first shot to launch an electrification counter-offensive, can the bZ4X help Toyota to seize the beach successfully?
The bZ4X could have done better
The bZ4X is Toyota's blockbuster new car in the pure electric market, which not only carries the cutting-edge design language, but also brings together Toyota's many technologies in the field of new energy.
In terms of appearance, the bZ4X adopts a different shape from the current Toyota model, and the overall is quite sci-fi, which can be described as a direct mass production of the concept model. Such a design is not only fashionable and avant-garde, in line with the current consumer design aesthetics for electric vehicles, but also reflects the determination and courage of Toyota ALL IN to electrify.
In terms of body size, the length, width and height of the new car are 4690/1860/1650mm, and the wheelbase has reached 2850mm, which has certain advantages in the same class of models and ensures excellent riding space.
Inside, the new car continues the design of the exterior technology, the suspension of the 12.3-inch central control screen, with the suspension of the irregular full LCD instrument, is also full of futuristic. Regrettably, the previously announced steering wheel of the opposite sex has not been mass-produced, and may still take into account the acceptability of Volkswagen, which also reflects the pragmatic side of Toyota's car. In addition, Toyota's previous high-profile advertised direction-by-wire system did not appear in the configuration table. According to official information, Toyota is actively discussing the introduction of OMG driving control kits, race wheels, and steer-by-wire systems.
In terms of power, the bZ4X two-wheel drive version and the four-wheel drive version are equipped with completely different motors. The two-wheel drive version only carries a motor with a maximum power of 150kW, while the four-wheel drive version is equipped with an 80kW motor front and rear, with a total power of 160kW, and the overall power performance can only be regarded as decent. However, the bZ4X is equipped with Subaru's "housekeeper" X-MODE system, with the "Grip-Control" intelligent multi-road condition adaptation system, which can meet certain rain off-road needs.
On the battery, the ternary lithium battery equipped with the bZ4X has two capacity specifications, which are 50.3kWh and 66.7kWh. On the front-drive version, the official maximum endurance data is 615km. The bZ4X also supports an optional solar charging dome, which officially says can generate 1,750km of electricity a year.
As Toyota's first product after accelerating electrification, the bZ4X is undoubtedly a reliable electric vehicle with personality. In multiple dimensions such as styling design, mileage, driving texture, safety and quality, etc., it has a product strength that is not inferior to mainstream competitors.
However, for the current 200,000-300,000 pure electric vehicle market, is such a product force enough? Volkswagen's ID series seems to have a certain reference.
Like bZ4X, the Volkswagen ID.4/ID.6 has a good competitiveness in terms of design, endurance, safety and driving quality. Also as an important model of Volkswagen's electrification transformation, it has the blessing of Volkswagen's aura, but the actual market performance can only be said to be unsatisfactory. In contrast, the Volkswagen ID series has a good performance in the European market, and the ID.3 once surpassed the Tesla Model 3 and occupied the No.1 of the European new energy market.
For such a "contrast", PwC, a research institute in the United Kingdom, once said in the research report: The ID series is an excellent electric vehicle, but it is not smart enough. Driven by Tesla, Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, the Chinese market has entered the second stage of electric vehicles: electric vehicles + smart cars. Europe is still in the first stage, so the ID series can sell well in Europe, but in China, the response is mediocre.
In this regard, Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group, once said: "Intelligent (autonomous) cars are the real 'game changers' in the automotive industry, not electric vehicles." "However, we see that Volkswagen's latest ID series is still mainly labeled with driving control, rather than intelligent. It can be seen that Volkswagen itself admits that the intelligence of the Volkswagen ID series is not good enough, which is why it has not achieved the expected results in the Chinese market.
So, what about the intelligence of the Toyota bZ4X? Obviously, whether compared with the new car-making forces such as "Wei Xiaoli" in China, or compared with traditional independent brands such as BYD, Great Wall, and GAC Ae-An, the new car has not come up with eye-catching competitiveness in terms of intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving.
Take intelligent driving, according to the official publicity, Toyota bZ4X is equipped with an upgraded version of the "Toyota Safety Sense" assistance set, but in terms of function, it is still a more mainstream L2 level driving ability, and it does not have the same as Xiaopeng NPG, which can achieve high-speed navigation functions such as active crossing ramps and overtaking, not to mention more advanced urban pilot assistance.
I have to say that for the current new energy vehicles, with the continuous improvement of the mileage, intelligence has become a very important core competitiveness. In terms of intelligence, traditional overseas car companies such as Volkswagen and Toyota are still in a backward state compared with Chinese brands.
However, the public is already aware of this problem. In response, Volkswagen announced that it will continue to invest 2-2.5 billion euros per year in its software company CARIAD to accelerate the development of the software business. At the same time, CARIAD has also recently established a subsidiary in Shanghai to strengthen its localization of software research and development capabilities. In contrast, in terms of intelligence, Toyota did not announce detailed planning and layout. In the future, Toyota wants to accelerate the pace of the electric market, not only to build a reliable pure electric vehicle, but also to build a smart pure electric vehicle, and improving intelligence and software strength is undoubtedly the top priority.
In any case, the arrival of the bZ4X has a significant impact on Toyota and even the automotive industry. On the one hand, for Toyota, this is the beginning of its electrification from defense to attack; on the other hand, for the entire automotive industry, with the traditional fuel overlords determined to electrify ALL IN, it is time for independent brands to speed up the speed of "overtaking in curves".